AHIP Ad Is Self-Serving Crap. Big Surprise.

A front group for the corporate rip-off artists known as health insurance companies put an ad out today telling readers how wonderful the insurance industry is and that the industry actually makes health care more affordable. Just in case you wonder who they really represent, and be assured it’s not you, go to their membership page. All the big names that have been stealing you blind for decades are there.

Welcome to the land of twisted logic.

We strongly support real health care reform that covers all Americans, makes pre-existing conditions a thing of the past, and controls skyrocketing medical costs.

Nonsense. They have had the opportunity and the clout for decades to do these things before now, without the hammer of federal law to force them. They have refused because they make their money by denying coverage, by finding every possible piddling excuse to cancel policies so they don’t have to pay medical bills.

The only reason they want to come out and say these things now is because the government is handing them tens of millions of new subscribers, because those millions of people will now be forced into servitude by having to pay for inferior insurance from people who are no better than sociopathic pirates and thieves.

And health insurance companies are not health care companies. They do not give one injection, perform one operation, make one diagnosis, do one single thing that amounts to health care. They make their judas coin by taking subscribers money and denying subscribers the money for health care, leaving those subscribers to be crucified on the cross of sickness, suffering, and misery.

The cost of medical treatments and technologies continues to rise without regard to quality and effectiveness. A year’s supply of some prescription drugs can cost more than $250,000. The average cost for a single day’s stay in the hospital is more than $3,000. A typical MRI exam costs $1,200.

And the insurance pirates again have had decades to address the problem of costs, and have done nothing substantial, other than raise premiums, deny care, deny coverage, and cancel policies, all to increase profit at the expense of hard-working people who struggle to pay the outrageous premiums, premiums that buy them nothing but aggravation, that do nothing but put ill-trained bureaucratic corporate slugs between them and good health care. So for the pirate industry to complain about health care costs is a total crock.

Health insurers make health care more affordable by helping patients manage chronic conditions, promoting prevention and wellness, and fighting waste and fraud. And the total cost of everything we do, including all overhead, marketing, and profits, amounts to four percent of our nation’s health care spending. We need to become even more efficient, but reform also needs to address the other 96 percent.

Neither health care nor insurance have become more affordable, as the ad itself notes about health care, and as the media note every day in reporting another arrogant health insurance company raising premiums and shutting off coverage for subscribers who get sick.

The ‘total cost of everything we do’ being four percent is misdirection at best, if not an outright lie. Add up all the premiums they take in: that constitutes a major part of so-called health care costs, costs which provide no health care. And that four percent? Four percent of what? The whole health care bill for the country? How about listing the percentage of income for each company that goes to overhead, marketing, profits and obscene salaries. That would be an honest number, assuming they don’t lie about it. That number would tell you what your premiums are really paying for.

And another huge chunk of so-called health care costs comes from the unconscionable amount of time and effort every medical office has to devote to fighting with dozens of insurance companies, with all their varied and dissimilar forms and requirements.

Let’s face it, insurance companies are nothing more than crooked bookies. They take your money, your bet on your health, and they pocket it and tell you your horse lost, so they don’t owe you a damn thing. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it, except get sick and die.

Your insurance company stands between you and your doctor, between you and good health care. They do not do health care. They do money, and they aren’t needed. Your health care dollars should go from you to your doctors with an absolute minimum of interference from anyone else.

Medicare is the only program in the United States that does that for the average retired working person, and it does it for a genuine four percent operating cost. And it does it with virtually no interference in the doctor-patient relationship.

Medicare is a single payer, government run medical insurance program. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it’s better than the frauds and thieves running the private insurance companies. And if you want to talk savings, imagine how much money would be saved and how much more time your doctor could devote to giving you good medical care if he didn’t have to fight with insurance companies and didn’t have to maintain any number of staff whose only task is to wade through all those different insurance forms and requirements.

AHIP is promoting a crock of crap to make its corporate pirates look good. They want you to feel okay about handing them your money under the proposed federal mandate. You’re being tossed to the wolves and the wolves want to look pretty in their sheep suits. Unfortunately, no matter how you dress a wolf, no matter how much lipstick you put on it, it’s still a wolf. And The Lion apologizes to the wolves of the world, because for the most part they’re smarter than humans, especially the humans who buy into the sheep crap put out by AHIP and the insurance companies.